Nowadays, branding is one of the most important elements of the effective marketing strategy, that can really translate to the profits and final brand’s success. However, building a successful branding is a long-term, complex process, which has one main purpose - evoking specific feelings and emotions associated with the brand.
Recently, I have presented why branding is essential for every company and what benefits it can provide (if you haven't read it yet, click here: https://jcd.pl/why-branding-is-important); today let’s focus on elements which create brand awareness and how to build it efficiently.
Main elements of branding
Branding is made to create and consolidate brand awareness and evoke emotions among customers. I guess that anyone when hears names such as: Coca-Cola, Apple or Google - knows what does it mean right away. Big, well-known companies have mastered branding strategies to perfection, thanks to that their products function in the mind of thousands, or even millions of customers.
In general, any action meant to communicate with customers can be considered as an element of branding, which is to help create a recognizable and strong brand based on strategy.
Brand purpose - the first step of building a brand strategy is to understand our “why” - Why we do this? Why this is important? Answers to these questions allow to define the reason for being, what we stand for and how we intend to change something for the better.
Brand promise - is the reason, why the customer is in contact with our brand. It doesn’t have to be a tangible thing; the brand promise is also the feelings and emotions, which the customer experiences when interacting with our brand. The brand promise often shapes customers’ expectations by defining and showing what they can get from the brand or how they can benefit. If expectations and promises are not met, customers may be disappointed.
Brand positioning - there are hundreds of brands on the market, offering various products and services. Your goal is to find your specific niche, stand out apart competitors and reach the right target group by defining who your product is for. That’s why it crucial to think about: who is my target group? What differentiates my brand apart competitors? Answering these two questions enable you to narrow your audience down to your ideal customer, understand customer’s needs and expectations, to deliver a unique service or product and stand apart from other companies.
Brand personality and values - except material aspects (e.g. product’s appearance), and functionality (e.g. product’s purpose), brand has it’s unique “personality traits”, thanks to which the brand is better understood and can communicate with customers more effectively. In the context of branding, the personality is defined by brand values, how it relates to and communicates with others, how it behaves in specific situations, what emotions it evokes.
Brand design - in general it’s a visual identity of a brand; it’s the most visible element of branding, which includes many important features, such as: a logo, colours, typography, graphics, leaflets, web design or app design, and many more. The visual identity of your brand should reflect your philosophy, brand purpose and it’s features - thanks to that it can support your actions and strategies effectively.
Your brand is a wide, complex suite of promises, experiences, benefits and visual elements, which are to create your brand identity and how your brand is perceived. All these elements are collected in a document called a brand book.
And remember that brand identity is not a constant, unchangeable element. Branding develops with your company, your offer, with your products and with your customers as well. It should follow current trends, market situation, customers’ expectations and their needs. Planned and implemented correctly will enable to reach prospective customers, create positive experiences and to build a strong brand.
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